Linkage Projects connect researchers to achieve real-world solutions

The University of Newcastle has been successful in securing more than $700,000 in the latest round of funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC).


Supported by an ARC Linkage Project, two cross-institutional teams led by University of Newcastle researchers will explore solutions to the following pressing global challenges:

  • $456,527 for Professor Brett Neilan and team to investigate mitigating the risk of cyanobacterial blooms in wastewater ponds. Cyanobacterial algal blooms in wastewater pose a significant risk to the economy, the environment and public health due to their impact on effluent quality and the utility of recycled water.

    To understand the causes and associated risk, this project will use the latest molecular techniques to examine how the microbial communities interact with each other and their surrounding environment to form blooms and produce toxins and other harmful metabolites. Such knowledge will inform risk assessment and provide strategies for the mitigation of future bloom events, improving the security of our increasingly valuable recycled water resources.

  • $247,000 for Professor Rosalind Smith and team to uncover the contents and scope of the extraordinary Emmerson Collection, a national treasure of over 5000 early modern rare books and manuscripts given to State Library Victoria in 2015. The Emmerson collection is the first and only early modern archive of scale to be held by an Australian institution, comparable to major international collections such as those held by the Bodleian library in Oxford and the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington.

    Bringing together experts in early modern studies and the digital humanities with specialist library staff, this project will uncover the contents and scope of the collection and promote its international scholarly significance to the wider world. In doing so, it will develop new digital tools designed to unlock the value of this unique national resource for a wide range of end-users, including scholars, teachers, students, creative content producers and the general public.

/University Release. View in full here.